RALLY TO DEFEND ILWU ! International Day Of Action
@ 1 Montgomery/Market in SF

Mar 15 @ 11:30 pm – Mar 16 @ 1:30 am

RALLY TODEFEND ILWU !

International Day Of Action

Stop Mitsui Union Busting and Concessionary Contracts

Fight the Lockout of ILWU by United Grain

in the Port of Vancouver, Washington

Friday March 15, 2013 – 4:30PM

1 Montgomery/Market Sts., SF

On March 15, 2013 there will be international actions and protests against the union busting lockout of ILWU Local 4 members by the Mitsui-owned company United Grain in the Port Of Vancouver, Washington.

Since the concessionary contract at EGT in Longview, Washington, other grain handlers have imposed a similar contract in NW grain ports after longshore workers voted 94% to reject it. The contract eliminated the union hiring hall, imposed a 12 hour day and allowed the replacement of union members if they stopped work for health and safety reasons. The other anti-union grain monopoly Cargill/Temco signed a separate agreement which includes many of these draconian measures which is being heralded by union officials as a “victory” because, they say, Cargill is American-owned. Longshore workers in Portland, the West Coast’s largest grain port, voted that concessionary contract down.

Already there have been fires and dangerous accidents working under these contracts.

Mitsui-owned United Grain locked out the ILWU members and have brought in scabs who have been training for many months to bust the ILWU. This attack on the union hiring hall, a key victory of the 1934 West Coast Maritime strike, is a major defeat for members of the ILWU and all workers whether in unions or not. This also whets the appetite of all maritime bosses who are want to impose EGT-type concessions in 2014 when the West Coast longshore contract expires.

The ILWU International leadership, using racist, flag-waving nationalism, is attacking Japanese capitalist bosses like they did during the lockout of ILWU Local 30 miners who were locked out in Boron, California by British-based Rio Tinto. This is a reactionary diversion. Only international labor solidarity actions can beat these union busters. Many companies are global. Whether British-owned company, Japanese-owned or American-owned, these companies are intent on destroying union labor here and around the world.

The ILWU Local 8 Executive Board in Portland and Japanese Doro-Chiba railway union have taken the initiative to call for action against Mitsui in solidarity with ILWU grain workers. The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee (TWSC) is supporting this International Day of Action.

Join us on Friday March 15th at 4:30 PM at 1 Montgomery Street in San Francisco at the headquarters of Mitsui in California. Let them know: Union busting is disgusting!

The ILWU has a proud history of class struggle and the fight for democratic principles codified in the Ten Guiding Principles of the ILWU. Today ILWU officials flaunt these union principles, using top down control to direct longshore workers to cross picket lines and keep contract negotiations secret while the PMA gives the contract to the maritime employers’ Journal Of Commerce. This contract gives employers a free hand to automate without counter demands of shorter shifts tied to wage increases and follows on the tail of the concessionary grain contracts at EGT and the Northwest Grain agreements. Left unchecked, it will gut ILWU’s coastwide power and bury arguably the last militant union in the United States.

Speakers:

–Anthony Leviege, activist member ILWU Local 10

– Stacey Rodgers, Executive Board member ILWU Local 10

– Jack Mulcahy*, member ILWU Local 8 Portland, grain negotiator

–Dan Coffman*, former president of Longview ILWU Local 21

– Howard Keylor, retired member of ILWU Local 10, an organizer of the historic 1984 longshore anti-apartheid strike

–Jack Heyman, retired member of ILWU Local 10, organizer of militant port actions

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